1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an agricultural system and method, and more specific for a system and method for more efficient harvesting of crops in the field.
2. Background
Agricultural crop harvest has historically relied on manual labor to perform the bulk of the work required. While advances in the industry have reduced the reliance on manual labor, for some crops the nature of the crop and methods of growing and harvesting makes automation of some processes difficult.
In the table grape industry, for example, the spacing of various grape plants, the necessity to handle fruit delicately, the need for selective harvesting of the fruit, and the presence of trellises, all combine to make automated harvesting difficult. Instead, workers typically move between rows, picking fruit ready for harvest and placing the fruit into containers provided by workers. When the containers are full, they are carried to the end of the row where the fruit is combined with fruit picked by other workers. More recently, specially designed wheelbarrows have been used so that workers do not have to carry individual containers by hand. Trials using a tractor/trailer combination that traveled the length of the vinerow to pick up loaded containers still required hand labor for loading and unloading the tractor/trailer, and the tractor/trailer combination disturbed the soil, which contaminated the containers of harvested fruit. Further, a large percentage of the workers' time is still spent manually moving fruit and containers along each row, rather than spent picking fruit.
Whether containers are carried by hand, transported on wheelbarrows, or moved with a tractor/trailer combination, substantial manual labor is still required to move the fruit out from under the canopy to the edge of the field for field packing or to transport to a packing facility offsite. This leads to inefficiencies in the process, potential contamination of grape bunches with dust and soil, and increases the risk of workplace injuries during the transport of heavy loads.